Rail Freight Solutions to Roadway Congestion--Final Report and Guidebook (2007) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 26-58
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From page 26... ...
Finally, as truck volumes continue to grow and capacity strains increasingly turn acute, congestion may drive more projects, because of the logistical effect on economic performance and public frustration with deteriorating highway levels of service. Case Study 1: Pennsylvania Double-Stack Clearances Type: Intercity Corridor The Project1 The 1980s were not kind to the Port of Philadelphia.
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From page 27... ...
The Philadelphia Port Corporation's Strategic Business Plan of that period suggested that the Port continue to focus on break bulk cargo -- a sector that represented nearly 60 percent of the Port's traffic volume. Opportunities in higher margin traffic, such as long-distance international containers and imported motor vehicles would be limited, inasmuch as the regional transportation infrastructure could not accommodate the more efficient double-stack containers and multi-level automobile racks de rigueur in the rail industry and available to several competing ports along the Eastern Seaboard.
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From page 28... ...
• Preservation of Port Competitiveness -- The prospect of improved operating efficiency for the railroad was expected to result in "lower transportation costs for businesses and, ultimately, lower prices for consumers."5 • Highway Traffic Diversion -- Absent the completion of the Pennsylvania Clearance Project, the growth of rail intermodal activities in Pennsylvania was stifled. Two markets relatively untapped prior to the clearance work blossomed following its completion: – International containers moving into Pennsylvania and Maryland from the West Coast.
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From page 29... ...
8. Since their takeover of Conrail, Norfolk Southern and CSXT sought to use the benefits of the Pennsylvania Double-Stack Clearance Program by expanding the number of cleared routes and the capacity of intermodal terminals along the routes and by further promoting economic development in the region.
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From page 30... ...
Case Study 2: Virginia I-81 Marketing Study Type: Intercity Corridor The Project12 The Virginia I-81 Marketing Study examined the potential for new railroad freight services to attract truck traffic from Commonwealth highways to alleviate roadway congestion and improve safety. The project used primary market research, competitive and operational analysis, diversion modeling with traffic data, and cooperative planning with railroad officials to establish the product features and attendant costs and investments that would be required to shift varying levels of highway volume to rail.
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From page 31... ...
Decision makers were identified and questioned about the potential for their use of rail intermodal services and the performance characteristics required to attract their business. • Scenario Development -- Based on the findings from interviews and surveys and on traffic flow data and the experience of railroad officials, a series of alternative railroad service designs were prepared.
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From page 32... ...
Both components of this strategy were pursued. Motivation The I-81 Marketing Study was an intercity corridor project aimed at the reduction of truck volume and improvement of safety on interstate highways, and it could act as a precursor to publicly backed railway construction for this purpose.
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From page 33... ...
The I-81 Corridor was an underdeveloped intermodal market for various historical reasons and offered large opportunities for rail market share growth with conventional long-haul services. As one point of comparison, intermodal market share in the lane between Harrisburg, PA, and Atlanta, GA, was 5 percent, versus 40 percent in the Harrisburg-Chicago lane of similar distance.16 In addition, the eastern coal business, which for generations had been the traffic baseload for Norfolk Southern railroads, had gone into decline, and intermodal business built with highway diversions was the only likely replacement.
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From page 34... ...
Short-Haul Features -- The rapidity and low cost of terminal transfers in Expressway-style service also rendered it effective for the high-volume, shorter haul traffic, whose capture would raise the productivity of railway alternatives to road investments. Coupled with this was the appeal of the service design to large network motor carriers, through its use of frequent trailer service and transit speeds equivalent to the performance of single-driver trucks.
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From page 35... ...
This had a second-order influence on road diversions, because the large network truck line with a lowcost structure could win business away from less efficient operators or cause them to convert to intermodal. The Virginia I-81 Marketing Study made clear that meaningful relief to highway freight volumes in intercity corridors is possible with rail service and indicated some of the ways it could be brought about.
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From page 36... ...
The second section entails construction of a brand new alignment, of which 95 km is along the existing A15 expressway. The port railway line is designed to provide an efficient rail connection between the seaport and Kijfhoek, a major rail freight hub near the port that provides access to the European rail network.
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From page 37... ...
A substantial portion of this growth is expected to be absorbed by the BRL. The port railway segment between Rotterdam and Kijfhoek is anticipated to carry 55 million tons, and the main stem of the BRL to the German border is expected to carry 32 million tons in 2010, or about 50 percent of the Netherlands' total rail freight volume.
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From page 38... ...
If finished, the second stage would produce a complete trans-urban rail corridor with a 55-mile span. The project brings about various benefits through two primary measures: • Route Consolidation -- The Alameda Corridor Transportation Authority acquired and rationalized the network of rail lines serving the San Pedro Bay ports, consolidating all traffic to one route.20 • Right-of-Way Improvements -- Reconstruction of the consolidated route featured multi-tracking, grade separation, upgraded track material, and traffic control systems.
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From page 39... ...
The viability of a short-distance, high-volume urban rail project for congestion mitigation is of great interest to public planners, because rail typically is most effective at much longer lengths of haul and because most truck trips are relatively short. In the dry van markets for which rail intermodal services (like the Alameda Corridor)
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From page 40... ...
Several of the factors that brought this about may be instructive for other rail projects: • The $1.6 billion in bonds and loans was expected to be repaid by user fees, but the funds were not guaranteed by the port, the railroads, or any government. Instead, the Authority achieved a kind of monopoly control by acquiring all of the rail access routes to one of the largest rail traffic generating facilities in the country, and by assessing the user fee per container, regardless of the mode by which the container actually leaves the ports.
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From page 41... ...
By making freight activity easier to live with, exploiting its local and non-local significance, and tightly controlling economic incentives, the Alameda Corridor was able to mitigate roadway congestion, raise the capacity of the freight network, and encourage the growth of trade. Case Study 5: Sheffield Flyover, Kansas City, Missouri Type: Urban Corridor The Project27 The Sheffield Flyover increased the capacity and improved the performance of a major bottleneck in the rail network in and around Kansas City.
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From page 42... ...
main line crossed the Union Pacific (UP) and Kansas City Southern (KCS)
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From page 43... ...
It affected roadway congestion in each of these dimensions, and it protected the highways from additional demand by helping to prevent depletion of the rail traffic base. Kansas City is the second-largest rail freight hub in the country after Chicago.
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From page 44... ...
From 2000 to 2003, the MCTS planning process identified a set of surface transportation projects designed to support a balanced flow of rail and truck movements. They were intended to minimize local traffic congestion, while maximizing the economic health of the region's international gateway function -- which is the flow of cargo via marine port, airport, and international border crossings.
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From page 45... ...
The needs addressed by proposed rail infrastructure projects were to • Provide capacity to the rail network, either though additional tracks or sidings; and • Reduce conflicts between rail and road-based traffic. However, underlying those specific needs were several broader objectives for the MCTS, which were to • Provide a continuous network for efficient commercial vehicle operations; • Use multi-modal solutions (i.e., road, rail, and water courses)
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From page 46... ...
At the outset, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and the Canadian Federal Department of Western Economic Diversification became actively involved in funding MCTS needs and planning efforts because they saw major economic threats and opportunities associated with the failure or success of the Vancouver region in addressing surface transportation congestion and capacity for growth of ports and border crossings. The Greater Vancouver Gateway Council and its reports noted that the current transportation system, in all its 47 Highway & Transit Project Description of Project (motivation is noted in parentheses)
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From page 47... ...
The Federal Department of Western Economic Diversification funded the Greater Vancouver Gateway Council to conduct a study of the implications of the MCTS and its proposed improvements for the economic development of four Canadian provinces. The study30 showed that Vancouver's international gateway function had broad economic importance that would be threatened, if capacity constraints and congestion within the region's surface transportation system undermined the ability of the region to serve international freight movements competitively in the future.
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From page 48... ...
rail traffic flows through the Chicago region. Despite the massive volumes and transformation in the railroad's business, Chicago's rail infrastructure remains largely unchanged from the early 20th century.
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From page 49... ...
Chicago sustains a tremendous concentration of rail freight. Over 70 million tons of rail intermodal traffic are hosted by the region's railroads and highways; translated into 50
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From page 50... ...
For rail, the expected continued growth in traffic could result in significant collateral effects: more frequent interruption at rail/highway grade crossings, greater noise from more frequent trains, and growing truck traffic over City streets traveling to and from intermodal terminals. The existing rail infrastructure, such as bridges and viaducts, will, without substantial additional investment, become more severely stressed and deteriorated than it already is.
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From page 51... ...
The economic analysis from the Chicago study suggests that annual economic costs rise far into the millions of dollars if rail infrastructure problems restrict industrial development -- and can reach the billions in a major urban network center like Chicago. • Invest to relocate rail facilities to allow redevelopment -- This strategy seeks to make better economic use of land and rights-of-way currently used for rail operations.
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From page 52... ...
These are as follows: • Maine Industrial Rail Access Program -- "The Industrial Rail Access Program has been designed by the Maine Department of Transportation to encourage economic development and increased use of the rail transportation mode." • Ohio Rail Economic Development Program -- "The goal of this program is to induce companies to locate or expand in Ohio. The Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC)
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From page 53... ...
Maine industrial rail access program (selected projects, 2001)
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From page 54... ...
By relocating the truck and rail distribution facilities away from the main port site, the inland port facility • Reduces congestion from truck traffic in the area of the main port, • Reduces rail/roadway intersection delays, and • Removes constraints on port expansion that are attributable to truck capacity limitations. There are several similar examples of inland port infrastructure projects, which are all discussed here because they incorporate similar characteristics.
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From page 55... ...
The Kansas City Smartport is an "Inland Port Trade Processing Demonstration" that markets the Kansas City region by developing and demonstrating the application of super-efficient international trade processing for movements between Mexico, Kansas City, and Canada. Finally, there is the March Inland Port -- the name for an industrial park at the site of March Air Force Base in Riverside, California, which is being marketed as featuring a cargo airport along with freeway access and rail lines that make it desirable for businesses requiring multi-modal access.
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From page 56... ...
That they work in conjunction with the main ports also limits the availability of data separating inland port activity from total marine port activity. As a result, there are no hard statistics on the observed impacts of inland ports on shifting container handling or reducing truck traffic at the main ports.
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From page 57... ...
Subsequent discussions with Norfolk Southern Railway led to common interest in the concept and the development of a plan to establish an inland port facility in Warren County, near Washington, DC. In 1987, the Governor of Virginia announced plans for state funding to establish the facility, to be owned by VPA and operated by VIT, working with the railroad.
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From page 58... ...
http:// www.bics.be.schule.de/verkehr/presse/1999_1/v2891_07.htm Railway Technology, "Betuweroute Freight Line, Netherlands," (referenced May 23, 2003) http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/ betuweroute/ The Sheffield Flyover BNSF News Release, "Second Flyover Bridge to Streamline Rail Traffic Through Kansas City" Kansas City, Kansas, February 15, 2002 http:// www.bnsf.com/news/articles/2002/02/2002-02-15-a.html?
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